STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2993

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2298

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2298, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WAGES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to increase the classification for violations of wages and hours laws to a class C felony.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Hawaii State AFL-CIO, and Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committees find that state labor laws should vigorously protect workers from employers who fail to pay their employees. Wage theft accounts for $15,000,000 stolen each year, which totals more than all stolen money from physical burglaries in the United States combined. This measure will provide a greater deterrence to employers who violate wage and hour laws or other compensation laws, and protect and elevate the State's economically vulnerable workers.

Your Committees note that the state of mind required for a class C felony should be the state of mind currently applicable to a misdemeanor.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by removing the knowingly state of mind requirement from the class C felony.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2298, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2298, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair